There are those challenges when two or three recipes come to my mind and I keep oscillating between them for days...not for that one. For some reason only known to my brain (and trust me sometimes we don't communicate very well), the only thing that came to my mind and stayed there was "Citron Givre", or Frozen Lemon, another typical bistro dessert in France back in th 70s and 80s: a hollowed lemon filled with lemon sorbet. This was my dessert of choice when I was a child, really, it never failed that anywhere we went with my parents I would either have "vacherin" (a dessert of meringue and ice cream) or citron givre. Imagine: a whole lemon stuffed with more refreshing tart and sweet lemon flavored! How fitting for the theme and the hot days we are having now!

As an adult, I did not lose my love for anything lemony but I also added a repertoire of spices, herbs and other ingredients to my palate. This particular sorbet falls more on the line of a sherbet as it contains milk but the French only have one word for "sorbet". The ice cream was inspired by Pierre Herme's Lemon sorbet (sherbet) and kicked up a notch with crystallized ginger. The only downfalls to this particular dessert are that you don't want to share and you wished you had more!!

Slice a tiny bit off of the bottoms of the lemons so that they can sit straight (relatively speaking). Slice the top off and keep that "hat".Scoop as much of the flesh out of each lemon and set in a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl. With your hands or the back of a spoon press as much of the lemon juice as you can and measure 150 ml. Add extra lemon juice if needed.In a saucepan over medium high heat, bring the water and sugar to a bol. Add the ginger and let cool completely. Add the milk and the lemon juice, stir and process in your ice cream machine according to your manufacturer's directions.If you do not have an ice cream machine: freeze until soft serve consistency and mix with an immersion blender or whisk in a stand mixer. Put back in the freezer and repeat the operation 2-3 times, leaving enough time in between whippings for the mixture to get frozen.

Once your ice cream is ready, fill the lemon cavities and keep frozen until ready to serve.The presentation always makes people happy and you have just made an easy bistro dessert in almost no time!!

Is the "Citron Givre", another typical bistro dish to disappear off the menu?It looks divine here, but I've never seen it on offer in France...The again maybe I didn't recognize it's name. But I can almost never find assette de crudite anymore...

Oh Helen! You have rewritten the book on "adorableness"!! I love these - there was a bit of a fashion for them in South Africa a couple of years ago - I think an enterprising company was doing lemons, oranges and (I think??) mangoes, and I fell in love. It's such a pretty dessert and a great one to serve after a heavy meal. The idea of crystallised ginger in the lemon sorbet just knocks my socks off!

And *thank you* for remembering us little guys who do not have ice cream makers...